THE WALL AND THE EXCEPTION

Tijuana, Mexico/Arquina No.16

Honorable mention

THE WALL is the most basic and and yet the most complex and strong appartus of architecture. The wallincludes and excludes by defition domesticating the space, transforming it into a territory delimited and controlled. The wall distiguish the allied from the enemy, it truns everything that is outside of its domain into a possible treath. However the essence of the wall is its threshold. this inbetween space lacking of any identity, pure potential, an state of exception per se. The place where the absence triumphs over the presence.

Base on this description, our interpretation for the Threashold of the Americasin the border between Mexico and U.S.goes beyond the design of a bridge or a crossing point. Our proposal instead, focuses precisely on this inbetween moment of crossing, a neutral moment where nationalities arenot important and a passport is not necessary to get in but only to get out. This space is mere ilussion and as such, its exterior facadesare cladded with mirror, reflecting on one hand the city infront of it and at the same time vanishing the wall dividing the two countries.